Letters from a Shattered World roundup


Another year, another Letters NaNo complete! (National Novel Writing Month) If you don't know what NaNo is, the basic concept is you write a novel - 50k words - in November. You're encouraged to just write, don't worry about proofreading or editing, just WRITE. So if you're wondering why I just abruptly spun off into fiction, that's why.

Once again, the criteria was simple - the Letters had to be Shattering/Cataclysm-specific. If I could have written them before Cataclysm came out, then it wasn't valid. There were some good suggestions by a few people for interesting characters, but unfortunately they were older characters, and thus not eligible.

This year, I tried really hard to be more faction-neutral, and I think I managed it pretty well! I sorted Letters into three categories - Horde, Alliance, or Neutral. In other words, would this letter make a lot more sense to players of a specific faction? Or are their stories equally understandable to both Horde and Alliance? For example, the letter about the orc flight master on the island above Vashj'ir is a neutral storyline. It's written by an orc, but it's not really about the Horde, nor does it involve info only Horde players would know.

Here was my breakdown:

Horde: 6
Gamon, Masha, Calder Gray, Magatha, Wabang, Orgrimmar Thief

Alliance: 6/7
Elling Trias, Jorgensen, Edwin VanCleef, Foxy Topper, Tobias Mistmantle, Lurid (and the bonus letter, Grimclaw)

Neutral: 10
Mylune, Vashreen, Neptulon, Jadaar, Briglar, Neltharion, Thisalee Crow, Millhouse Manastorm, Shaina Fuller, Lynnia Abbendis

There were so many interesting characters I would have liked to feature, but either couldn't think of a story/angle to take for them, or ran out of time. (And these are quite exhausting, so I don't think I'll do more.) Some of the ideas that never made it to proverbial paper include:

Horde
The Gob Squad, Lilian Voss, High Warlord Cromush, Lakota Windsong, Orkus' frost wyrm mount, the Dragonmaw General in Twilight Highlands (who is the general from Netherwing Ledge!), Galen Trollbane, Heartrazor, Renee Lauer, the orcs at the Rocktusk Farm right outside Orgrimmar whose pigs get slaughtered for a cooking daily quest, Gretchen Dedmar

Alliance
Humprey Digsong, Minx, "Cookie" McWeaksauce, Donnely Dunwald, Loremaster Dibbs, Horatio Laine, Jack Bauden, Gwen Armstead, Hogger, Salsbury

Neutral
Ozruk, Initiate Goldmine, Brother Anton, Rhea, General Hawthorne, Leyara (or her daughter), Lunk, Pebble, everything related to the creepy crate, Chen Stormstout, the sparkle pony, Pandaren Monk, Zen'kiki or his druid trainer, Throngus, Coren Direbrew, Salhet, the Lashtail Hatchling, Forgemaster Finlay, Grent Direhammer,

Once again, I've gathered all the Letters and published them to a separate blog for convenience, which can be found at http://shatteredletters.blogspot.com.

And, here's a list of all the characters featured this year, in case you didn't realize a Letter was about or from them. :)

GrimclawMyluneThe Transmogrifier Ethereals
GamonMasha CliffwalkerNeptulonElling Trias
Calder GrayJadaarJorgensenMagatha Grimtotem
BriglarNeltharion • Edwin VanCleef • Thisalee Crow
Former Auctioneer WabangLieutenant Foxy Topper
Orgrimmar ThiefMillhouse Manastorm
Tobias MistmantleLurid • Shaina Fuller, First Aid Trainer
Lynnia Abbendis

5 Responses Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    Anonymous

    Cromush and Kasha (Orkus's mount)'s letters sometime please D:

    December 9, 2011 at 1:59 AM

  2. gravatar
    Mittenz

    When I saw this post, I was sad that it was over, but then I saw the list and it definitely didn't feel like you wrote that many letters! I guess I read too fast for my own good :P They were all very interesting, even if I didn't comment on all of them. I was even talking to my sister about Elling Trias the other day because of your post (she plays mostly Alliance).

    December 9, 2011 at 11:46 AM

  3. gravatar
    thrinetu

    hi, i loved every last one of the letters you wrote! please don't stop with these ones!

    December 9, 2011 at 12:14 PM

  4. gravatar
    redcow

    Congratulations on another job well done! Seeing some of the names that didn't make the cut makes me want to see their letters anyway, though...!!

    December 11, 2011 at 8:11 PM

  5. gravatar
    theanorak

    This year, I've been deliberately punching the "mark read" button in my feedreaders whenever one of your letters posts came up.

    CONTROVERSY! Bwahahahah...

    No really, I have -- because I was pretty certain there'd be a Letters from a Shattered World site at the end, and I wanted to read them all together in sequence. Now I can.

    I don't doubt that they'll be excellent.

    December 12, 2011 at 11:08 AM